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Imperial Roman Sardinia
For over 1,000 years the island of Sardinia was an imperial province of both the Western and Eastern Roman Empires.
Circa 1000 BC the Phoenicians began visiting Sardinia with increasing frequency, presumably initially needing safe over-night and/or all-weather anchorages along their trade routes from the coast of modern-day Lebanon as far afield as the African and European Atlantic coasts and beyond. The most common ports of call were Caralis, Nora, Bithia, Sulcis, Tharros, Bosa and Olbia. .
While the Phoenicians stuck to the coastline, their relationship with the Sardinians was peaceful. However, after a few hundred years of habitation, they began expanding inward. They took over valuable natural resources such as silver and lead mines, and established a military presence in the form of a fortress on Monte Sira in 650 BC.
The Sardinians resented these intrusions, and in 509 BC they mounted a series of attacks against Phoenician settlements. The Phoenician settlers called upon Carthage for help, and when it arrived they successfully took control of part of the southern part of the island.
Conquest by the Roman Republic
In 238 BC the Carthaginians, as a result of their defeat by the Romans in the First Punic War, surrendered Corsica and Sardinia to Rome, and together they became a Roman province.
The existing coastal cities were enlarged and embellished, while Coloniae such as Turris Lybissonis and Feronia were founded. These were populated by Roman immigrants.
The Roman military occupation brought the Nuragic civilization to an end. Roman domination of Sardinia lasted 694 years, during which it was an important source of grain for the capital.
Latin came to be the dominant spoken language of Sardinia during this period, though Roman culture was slower to take hold, and Roman rule was often contested by the inhabitants of Sardinia's mountainous central regions.
A variety of revolts and uprisings occurred: however, since the interior areas were densely forested, the Romans avoided them and set them aside as the "land of the barbarians".
Overall, Corsica and Sardinia became trivial gains compared to the Roman Empire's Eastern gains. From Corsica, the Romans did not receive much spoil nor were the prisoners willing to bow to foreign rule, and to learn anything Roman. It was said that "whoever has bought one [Corsican] regrets the waste of his money". The Romans regarded the islands and their people as backward and unhealthy.
Even though the Romans considered them trivial, Corsica and Sardinia ended up playing an important role in the happenings of the Empire. Sardinia provided much of the grain supply during the time of the Roman Republic. Corsica provided wax to the empire, as that was all that could be found on the island.
Vandal Warrior |
Julius Caesar had Sardinia occupied by his delegates and gained control of the grain supply. This supply of grain fed his army and ensured their victory in the civil war of 49 BC. Within the second triumvirate, Octavian received the islands as part of his share and used its grain supply to feed his armies against Brutus and Cassius.
Corsica and Sardinia also came to be recognized as a place of exile. C. Cassius Longinus, the lawyer accused of conspiracy by Nero was sent to the province as was Anicentus, murderer of the first Agrippina. Many Jews and Christians were also sent to the islands under Tiberius.
Vandal Conquest
The east Germanic tribe of the Vandals conquered Sardinia in 456. Their rule lasted for 78 years up to 534, when eastern Roman troops under Cyrillus retook the island. It is known that the Vandal government continued the forms of the existing Roman Imperial structure.
The governor of Sardinia continued to be called the praeses and apparently continued to manage military, judicial, and civil governmental functions via imperial procedures. (This continuity was not novel to Sardinia; like the Visigoths, the Vandals generally maintained the pretense of the empire, nominally acknowledging Constantinople and declaring themselves its deputies.)
The only Vandal governor of Sardinia about whom there is substantial record is the last, Godas, a Visigoth noble. In AD 530 a coup d'état in Carthage removed King Hilderic, a convert to Nicene Christianity, in favor of his cousin Gelimer, an Arian Christian like most of his kingdom. Godas was sent to take charge and ensure the loyalty of Sardinia. He did the exact opposite, declaring the island's independence from Carthage and opening negotiations with Emperor Justinian I, who had declared war on Hilderic's behalf.
In AD 533 Gelimer sent the bulk of his army to Sardinia to subdue Godas, with the catastrophic result that the Vandal Kingdom was overwhelmed when Justinian's own army under Belisarius arrived in their absence. The Vandal Kingdom ended and Sardinia was returned to Byzantine rule.
Church of Santa Sabina, Silanus, Sardinia The church of Santa Sabina located in the plane of Silanus. The church has circular plan, with room central apse flanked by two cells. The church was built between X and XI century, in Byzantine period. (Silanus, Sardinia) |
The Byzantine Re-Conquest
In AD 533 Sardinia returned under the rule of the Eastern Roman Empire when the Vandals were defeated by the armies of Justinian I under the General Belisarius in the Battle of Tricamarum, in their African kingdom; Belisarius sent his general Cyrillus to Sardinia to retake the island.
Sardinia remained in Byzantine hands for the next 300 years, aside from a short period in which it was invaded by the Ostrogoths in 551.
Under Byzantine rule, the island was divided into districts called merèie, which were governed by a judge residing in Caralis (Cagliari) and garrisoned by an army stationed in Forum Traiani (today Fordongianus) under the command of a dux.
The praeses stood at the head of the civil bureaucracy and the judicial system as a supreme judge, the iudex provinciae, and was seated at Cagliari. The dux was the supreme commander of the military and was responsible for the defense of the island. His base was at Forum Traianus (Fordongianus). As the jurisdiction and mandate of both functions overlapped in many areas the function of praeses soon disappeared and both civil and military power concentrated in the hands of the dux which subsequently moved to Cagliari. The dux was at that time also referred to as ipatos and in letters of the pope as iudex (judge).
Walls of the Byzantine castrum at Tharros |
The Byzantine Castra
Under Byzantine rule the towns changed as Christianity played a more central role in town life and in town planning. Because of continuous military threats there was a need to build new fortifications, the Byzantine castra (sing. castrum), to defend the troops stationed on the island.
The Byzantine castra can be found near the old towns on the coast and in strategical locations inland to protect urban centres and the fertile lowlands. The reason the dux was initially stationed at Forum Traianus would have been to contain the barbaric tribes of the interior. This may have concerned a tribe of Maurs, deported by the Vandals from north-Africa to Sardinia.
A Byzantine castrum has been found near the Roman bridge that connected Sant'Antioco to the mainland and the fortifications on the hill of the tower of San Giovanni at Tharros are ascribed to a Byzantine castrum where older, punic, sandstone blocks have been reused. It is known that at Santa Vittoria di Serri soldiers of the exercitus Sardiniae were stationed there, and in other places like the Castello di Medusa near Samugheo, the Castello di Barumele near Ales and the castrum at Oschiri, all sites where the military presence has been found as a result of archaeological excavations.
During this time, Christianity took deeper root on the island, supplanting the Paganism which had survived into the early Medieval era in the culturally conservative hinterlands. Along with lay Christianity, the followers of monastic figures such as St. Basil became established in Sardinia. While Christianity penetrated the majority of the population, the inland region of Barbagia remained largely pagan.
Arab Warrior The Arab conquest of Sicily cut Sardinia off from Byzantium. |
In Barbagia towards the end of the 6th century, a short-lived independent principality established itself, returning to the local traditional religions. One of its princes, Ospitone, conducted raids upon the neighbouring Christian communities controlled by the Byzantine dux Zabarda. He was later reprimanded by Pope Gregory I within a letter for "Living, all like irrational animals, ignorant of the true God and worshiping wood and stone" In 594.
Ospitone was then convinced by Gregory the Great, to convert to Christianity after receiving the papal letter. His followers, however, were not immediately convinced and ostracised their prince for a short time before they themselves converted.
The dates and circumstances of the end of Byzantine rule in Sardinia are not known. Direct central control was maintained at least through c. 650, after which local legates were empowered in the face of the rebellion of Gregory the Patrician, Exarch of Africa and the first invasion of the Umayyads in North Africa.
The Incursions of the Arabs
There is some evidence that senior Byzantine administration in the Exarchate of Africa retreated to Cagliari following the final fall of Carthage to the Arabs in 697.
The loss of imperial control in Africa led to escalating Muslim Moorish and Berber raids on the island, the first of which is document in 705, forcing increased military self-reliance in the province.
Raiding on Sardinia, Sicily and Southern Italy continued in the eighth century and increased in intensity in the ninth century. The incursions lead to devastation in coastal towns like Sant'Antioco, Nora and Tharros and many Sards would have been enslaved or killed. But apart from some short periods in time and on small parts of Sardinia there has never been an Arab domination of the island in this whole period of time.
Communication with the central government became daunting if not impossible during and after the Muslim conquest of Sicily between 827 and 902.
The Sardinians had to ask often for help from outside. There was even a Sardinian delegation at the court of the Frankish king Louis the Pious asking for his support against the Arabs. Eventually in the tenth century when the Arabs conquered Sicily and cut off the Byzantine empire from its possessions in the west Sardinia became really isolated.
At the beginning of the eleventh century the island turned to the upcoming naval powers Genua and Pisa for support and protection at sea. In Arab and Pisan chronicles an Arab prince is mentioned, called Mugiahid (Museto), who attacked the island in 1015 and managed to conquer parts of the south of Sardinia. The next year he could be defeated with the help of Genua and Pisa ending this brief experience of occupation. It marked one of the ugliest moments for Sardinia in this period.
Ending Byzantine Rule
A letter by Pope Nicholas I as early as 864 mentions the "Sardinian judges", without reference to the empire and a letter by Pope John VIII (reigned 872-882) refers to them as principes ("princes").
By the time of De Administrando Imperio, completed in 952, the Byzantine authorities no longer listed Sardinia as an imperial province, suggesting they considered it lost.
The final transformation from imperial province to independent sovereign resulted from imperial abandonment or local assertion, by the 10th century, the giudici had emerged as the autonomous rulers of Sardinia.
The Giudicati of Sardinia. The Giudicati (Sardinian: Judicados, literally: judgeships or judicatures) were the indigenous kingdoms of Sardinia from about 900 until 1420, when the last was sold to the Crown of Aragon. The rulers of the Giudicati were the giudici. . The title of iudex was that of a Byzantine governor (praeses or judex provinciae) dating from the creation of the Exarchate of Africa in 582. The Byzantines were totally cut off from the Tyrrhenian Sea by the Muslim conquest of Sicily in 827. A letter of Pope Nicholas I in 864 mentions for the first time the "Sardinian judges," and their autonomy was clear in a later letter of Pope John VIII in which he referred to them as principes ("princes"). The local authority was exercised initially by curatores - who each ruled over a curatoria - who were subject to the judges, whose responsibilities included the administration of justice and command of the army. . Originally the giudicati' were Byzantine districts that became independent due to the Arab expansion in the Mediterranean, that obstructed connections between Sardinia and Byzantium. |
Flag of Sardinia The flag shows the heads of Muslim Moors from North Africa blindfolded and facing to the left. The Moors represent the era of the Muslim invasions of Italy starting about 827 AD. . Before the Kingdom of Sardinia was founded, the rulers of the island were known as archons (ἄρχοντες in Greek) or judges (iudices in Latin and Sardinian, giudici in Italian). The island was organized into one "judicatus" from the 9th century on. After the Muslim conquest of Sicily, in the 9th century, the Byzantines, who ruled Sardinia before, couldn't manage to defend their far west province. . Probably, a local noble family acceded to the power, still identifying themselves as vassal of the Byzantines, but independent "de facto" as communications with Constantinople were very difficult. This family adopted as its own coat of arms, the Byzantine one, that can be seen in several Sardinian sculpture of the period. It was a silver cross patonce on a blue field similar to the contemporaneous flag of the Duchy of Amalfi. . At the beginnings of the 11th century an attempt to conquer the island was made by Spanish Muslims. We have very little information on that war, but the Christians won and retained control of the island. |
(TomySardinia.com) (Giudicati) (Flag of Sardinia) (History of Sardinia)
(murighingius) (Exarchate of Africa) (Exarchate of Ravenna)
(historyfiles.co.uk-Sardinia) (Tharros.info) (Sardinia Byzantine Era)


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March 19, 2014 -- Updated 2314 GMT (0714 HKT)
(CNN) -- How could a commercial airliner disappear without a sign, you ask?
In fact, several people
on the ground or at sea claimed they saw Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
before it went missing after its post-midnight takeoff from Kuala Lumpur
on March 8.
The purported eyewitnesses include fishermen, an oil rig worker and islanders in an atoll. Some even alleged they saw it crash.
Grieving mom: Tell the truth |
Sighting claim: Kota Bharu, Malaysia
In the middle of the
night, two fishermen near the Malaysia-Thailand border saw a plane
flying low over the South China Sea -- at the same time that air traffic
controllers lost contact with Flight 370 over the same body of water,
at 1:30 a.m. or almost 50 minutes after takeoff.
Fisherman Azid Ibrahim and a friend had taken people fishing that night off the coast of Kota Bharu.
"I was fishing when I saw
the plane -- it looked strange. Flying low. I told my friend that's not
normal. Normally, it flies at 35,000 feet. But that night it touched
the clouds. I thought the pilot must be crazy," Ibrahim said.
"It was really low. I saw the lights they looked like the size of a coconut," he said.
Their fishing grounds lay under a flight path, but the predawn plane was unusual to see because of its low altitude, they said.
The fishermen filed a police report about their sighting, but Malaysian officials haven't commented.
Sighting claim: Oil rig off Vietnam
A New Zealand man
working on an oil rig off Vietnam claimed he saw a burning object in the
sky Saturday morning, hours after the plane had taken off.
Mike McKay of New
Zealand was stationed on the Sona-Mercur oil rig on seas about 186 miles
southeast of Vung Tau, a coastal Vietnamese town outside Ho Chi Minh
City, according to CNN affiliate Radio New Zealand.
McKay wrote of his sighting in an e-mail, the news outlet said.
"Gentlemen. I believe I
saw the Malaysian Airlines flight come down. The timing is right. I
tried to contact Malaysian and Vietnamese officials several days ago.
But I do not know if the message has been received," he wrote last week.
"I observed the plane burning at high altitude at a compass bearing of
265 to 275 degrees from our surface location.
"While I observed (the
plane) it appeared to be in one piece. From when I first saw the burning
(plane?) until the flames went out (at high altitude) was 10-15
seconds. There was no lateral movement so it was either coming toward
our position stationary (falling) or going away from our location. The
general position of the observation was perpendicular/south-west of the
normal flight path and at a lower altitude than the normal flight
paths," he wrote.
In fact, Vietnamese authorities dispatched aircraft last week to search for the plane, in response to McKay's report, the affiliate reported.
When the Vietnamese navy
sent a plane to conduct a search, it found nothing, ABC News reported.
Vietnamese naval officer Le Minh Thanh told that network that the plane
investigated the area cited by McKay, but the search came up empty.
Sighting claim: Maldives atoll
On a remote island in
the Maldives, residents claimed they saw a "low flying jumbo jet" the
same morning that the Malaysia plane disappeared, according to the
website of the Maldivian news outlet Haveeru.
Residents on the isle of
Kuda Huvadhoo in the Dhaalu Atoll gave a description that matched the
commercial airliners: white with red stripes, according to the news
"I've never seen a jet
flying so low over our island before. We've seen seaplanes, but I'm sure
that this was not one of those. I could even make out the doors on the
plane clearly," an unidentified eyewitness said, according to Haveeru.
"It's not just me either, several other residents have reported seeing
the exact same thing. Some people got out of their houses to see what
was causing the tremendous noise too."
These claims, published in a story Tuesday, were dismissed by Malaysian officials.
The Maldives coast guard told CNN it had no reports of such sightings and had not even been requested to conduct a search.
The acting Malaysian transport minister also declared the reports false.
"I can confirm that the
Malaysian Chief of the Defense Force has contacted his counterpart in
the Maldives, who has confirmed that these reports are not true,"
Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said at a press conference.
The Maldives Ministry of
Defense and National Security also confirmed that their radar systems
and surveillance mechanisms show no indication of the missing plane.
Sighting claim: Off Indonesia coast
Indonesian fishermen
claim they saw an airplane crash around the Strait of Malacca on the
morning of March 9 -- more than a full day after the Malaysian plane
took off -- the Indonesian state news agency Antara reported late
The strait lies between
Indonesia and Malaysia. The Indonesia fishermen, based in the North
Sumatra provincial subdistrict of Pangkalan Susu, went to sea for a week
of fishing on March 9, a Sunday.
At 11 a.m., they saw a plane crash, Antara reported.
"We saw an airplane crash around the Malacca Straits," a fisherman identified as Hendra said, according to Antara.
The fishermen saw a
white plane crossing and circling, Antara reported. Smoke came from the
plane's right rear portion when it circled for a second round and tilted
to the left, the agency said.
Flying lower, the plane then fell from sight.
"We suspect the plane
crashed into the sea," Hendra said, according to Antara. "We could not
go to the location where the aircraft was lost due to large waves, and
the boat did not have enough fuel."
The aircraft is believed to have crashed in waters off the Aceh provincial district of East Aceh.
But there are two problems with these fishermen's account.
They spotted the plane more than 24 hours after it took off from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
And Indonesian military officials said their radar didn't spot Flight 370.
The Jakarta Post
reported that Indonesian air force spokesman Air Commodore Hadi
Tjahjanto said the Air Force's radar in Lhokseumawe, Aceh, didn't detect
the missing flight in the area that the Malaysian military suggested
was the plane's last detected position, around Penang waters.
"Our radar information
has been shared with our Malaysian counterparts," the air force
spokesman added, according to the Jakarta Post.

subset: commoncrawl


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Topic: Iran
You know? One of the trickiest and most subjective things can be eye witness testimony.
I have NO doubt the Embassy Hostages are convinced beyond any doubt that this man was one of their tormentors.
I am also well aware from personal experience how tricky Post Traumatic Stress Triggers can be. My own experience has been a situation close but not the same can trigger and episode, where you do not exactly remember events you actually re-experience them.
That said, I find it hard to understand, why he would deny that event in his past if it were true.
Being at the Embassy in Tehran at that time, would be like a Bolshevik being on the Aurora or taking part in the Storming of the Winter Palace.
One could make the claim that it would be denied for present political concerns, but why would it have been hidden and denied for all these years when in that Society, that experience would give one a claim to Herodom?
He insists he was not there
and several known hostage-takers - now his strong political opponents - deny he was with them.
His website says he joined the Revolutionary Guards voluntarily after the revolution, and he is also reported to have served in covert operations during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.
That Ahmadinejad was involved in those events goes without saying.
In 1979, Ahmadinejad
was the head representative of IUST to the unofficial student gatherings that occasionally met with the Ayatollah Khomeini. In these sessions, the foundations of the first Office for Strengthening Unity (daftar-e tahkim-e vahdat), the student organization of which several members behind seizure of the United States embassy which led to the Iran hostage crisis, were created. Ahmadinejad became a member of the Office of Strengthening Unity. Before the seizure of the embassy, Ahmadinejad had suggested a simultaneous or similar attempt against the Soviet Union embassy, but was voted down, resulting in independent pursuit of the idea by its proponents.
US embassy siege
As a young student, Ahmadinejad joined an ultraconservative faction of the Office for Strengthening Unity, the radical student group spawned by the 1979 Islamic Revolution and staged the capture of the US Embassy.
According to reports, Ahmadinejad attended planning meetings for the US Embassy takeover and at these meetings lobbied for a simultaneous takeover of the Soviet Embassy.
To my mind being on the planning committee is more involvement than being a Guard at the Embassy, but I guess it is not as dramatic.
The Bulk of my view was influenced by an article on
Benador Associates
founded by Eleana Benador, is located in New York City as well as in Paris and London. However, the activities of the firm are expanding throughout the American continent, as well as in Europe and the Middle East.
Each of our experts is nationally and internationally recognized on issues of the Middle East and national security, among others. We are confident each of them makes your event, radio or television show a unique one
A source which does NOT have a reputation as an Apologist for Fascist Thugs in the Mideast. Amir Taheri, is a leader in the struggle against International Extremist Jihadism.
Gulf News
July 4, 2005
Even before the polls had opened in Iran's recent presidential election, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the eventual winner, was at the centre of controversies regarding his past
This November 9, 1979 photo shows one of 60 US hostages being displayed to the crowd outside the US Embassy in Tehran by Iranian hostage takers
He makes no secret that he is a professional revolutionary, having spent all his adult years in the service of the Khomeinist movement.
But was he the chief interrogator of American diplomats held hostage during the occupation of the United States Embassy in Tehran in 1979-80? And was he involved in the assassination of three dissident Kurdish leaders in Vienna in 1989?
On the basis of research in the past few days, it is almost certain Ahmadinejad was not directly involved in the US embassy episode.
But it is equally clear he was present when the three Kurdish leaders were gunned down by a hit-list from Tehran.
The allegation that Ahmadinejad was one of the hostage-holders at the American embassy is based on an Associated Press photo unearthed and published by a pro-Rafsanjani website hours after the election.
In it a bearded youth, holding the arm of a blindfolded American, is identified as Ahmadinejad. But anyone with the slightest understanding of morphology would realize the man in the photo is not Ahmadinejad.
The man in the photo has almost slanted eyes with eyebrows that point upwards. Ahmadinejad, however, has almond eyes with almost drooping eyebrows.
In any case the man in the photo has already been identified as Jaafar Zaker, one of the student leaders during the embassy raid.
Zaker's younger brother Mohsen told journalists in Tehran last Saturday that he recognized his brother who died in the Iran-Iraq war in 1984.
The second youth seen in the photo has been identified as one Ali Ranjbaran who was executed for his alleged links with the Mujahedin Khalq Islamic Marxist group.
That Ahmadinejad was not personally involved in the hostages drama is also borne out by his denials.
The occupied US Embassy in Tehran became a seeding ground for a new generation of radicals thirsting for action to gain revolutionary credentials.
Of the 400 or so students involved in the operation, nearly half died in the eight-year war against Iraq. The rest had differing fortunes. A few dozens were executed after being linked with leftist groups.
Some, like their ideological mentor, the dentist Habiballah Peyman, lapsed into an eclipse produced by disillusionment.
Others, however, used the episode as the centrepiece of their CV to claim senior posts in the new regime.
Maasumeh Ebtekar, the group's spokeswoman, operating under the code-name of "Sister Mary", became Assistant to the President for Environmental Affairs under Mohammad Khatami.
Reza Shaikh Al Islam, known to the hostages as "the tooth" and regarded as the most vicious of the captors, became deputy foreign minister and ambassador to Syria.
Mohammad-Reza Khatami, a brother of President Khatami, became a vice-speaker of the Islamic Majlis (parliament).
Mohsen Kadivar transformed himself into an ideologue for the self-styled "moderate" wing of the establishment.
Javad Zarif became ambassador to the UN. Abbas Abdi, Hashem Aghajari and Bijan Abidi joined the regime's loyal opposition. The remaining occupy high places in the Khomeinist nomenklatura.
Not personally involved
They all assert that Ahmadinejad, although a member of the Central Committee of the so-called Office of Consolidating Student Unity (OCSU) at the time, was not personally involved in the holding of the hostages.
It is almost certain that had Ahmadinejad been involved, he would have trumpeted the fact as part of his "glorious" Khomeinist background..
Instead, he has always said that he was opposed to the embassy raid because he saw it as a manoeuvre by the pro-Soviet left to provoke a clash with the United States and force the new regime into Moscow's arms.
Iranian author Amir Taheri was the editor-in-chief of Kayhan, the most important Iranian daily under the Shah. He is also a member of Benador Associates.
The rest of this article deals with the assassination of Kurdish dissidents in Vienna in
Correction for the record I originally researched this topic a couple of months ago and in posts and emails recently, I mistakenly stated that the Kurdish Hit took place in Switzerland, I was WRONG in that statement
If there are doubts about Ahmadinejad's involvement in the embassy raid, his presence at the killing of the Kurdish leaders in Vienna on 13 July 1989 is an established fact.
Ahamdinejad was wounded in the shoot-out and spent a day in a Vienna hospital before being whisked out of Austria with a diplomatic passport.
Iranian author Amir Taheri was the editor-in-chief of Kayhan, the most important Iranian daily under the Shah. He is also a member of Benador Associates.
Now I got into a little flurry on this subject over at
Cao's Blog
I presented from memory some of the above and the responce was.
If you can?t understand what it is I?m trying to say, I?m sorry?but don?t call me ?emotional? when you?re not being logical and examining the facts.
You?re measuring a lying terrorist scumbag by your own standards (saying he isn?t guilty because he hasn?t admitted his guilt) and Arab terrorists do not fit within our standards of thought. Obeidi wrote about that in his book when he was able to get what he asked for from the American University.
These guys don?t tell the truth; they LIE to further the cause of Jihad and Islam.
That?s not ?emotional?, that?s ?FACT?.
If you?re not familiar with that you should monitor what Robert Spencer writes over at Jihadwatch.
I am familiar with Jihadwatch, but I also prefer the testimony of Secular MidEasternors such as Taheri and Heggy and others.
I fail to comprehend where I dissolve this man of any guilt. But somethings he DID and somethings he did NOT do.
That in one instance memory may have played false with some of our fellow Americans held hostage all those years ago, in no means absolves him of a just label as a Brutal, Oppressive, Murdering, Torturing Fascist Thug, It just means that in this instance he was one of those who planned and directed it but did not engage in hands on activities.
Now if someone wants to disagree with the above and has verifiable sources we can discuss?
I welcome the input, my aim is to find the reality of a situation, not to defend an intellectual turf,
I will try not to descend to ad hominen attacks and if you have pc problems or are maybe tired and thumb fingered when you post?
I value substance over form any day.
"There is something wrong with your spacing, what?s the matter, did the cut and paste not work very well?
tsk tsk"
Actually I was very tired and having PC problems.
Happens. LOL
| Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
Updated: Sunday, 3 June 2007 7:19 AM CDT


text:
The mineral name itself is a link to the description of that mineral species, while the number to the left is the approximate count of the number of specimens currently available for sale of that species, and is also a direct link to the list of specimens.
The count may be zero, but if the link is active then there are specimens available to view, just not currently for sale. If the count is zero and the link is not active, then there are not even any specimens in the database. Remember, there may be more than one page of specimens, so you may need to select Next Page one or more times to see the entire list of available specimens. This page is also available in a no frames version, as well as a single long alphabetic list.


text:
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El Cajon ( el kə-HOHN, American Spanish: [el kaˈxon]; Spanish: El Cajón, meaning "the box") is a city in San Diego County, California, United States, 17 mi (27 km) east of downtown San Diego. The city takes its name from Rancho El Cajón, which was in turn named for the box-like shape of the valley that surrounds the city, which is also the origin of the city's common nickname of "the Box". == Name == El Cajón, Spanish for "the box", was first recorded on September 10, 1821, as an alternative name for sitio rancho Santa Mónica to describe the "boxed-in" nature of the valley in which it sat. The name appeared on maps in 1873 and 1875, shortened to "Cajon", until the modern town developed, in which the post office was named "El Cajon". In 1905, the name was once again expanded to "El Cajon" under the insistence of California banker and historian Zoeth Skinner Eldredge.
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text:
Hi Everyone, Wow, the year flew by - can you believe it's almost 2012? I have some very cool samples to share and links two more giveaways
Our ShopHop Sale with Splitcoast will end Dec 31 at 12 midnight so there are still 2 days left with free S&H and extra gifts with orders as described HERE. Some of you asked to see the free pendant and necklace colors (with orders over $20.00). You can see a green, brown and black in the photo below with the 1" round & square glass blanks and silver plated bails. I don't have these for sale, they are just a bonus thank you gift.
Okay, now on to some inspiring projects! Check out this wonderful Spring layout DT Leader Vicki Chrisman stitched up with a photo of her niece and using papers from CD # 2, Creating with Vintage Illustrations. You can see the details on Vicki's Blog on how she stitched on her paper and added the whimsical banner across the top using our Artsy Banner Stamp Set and swirly butterfly lines. The vintage flower bouquet is such a favorite of mine it's included on the green paper and this sample is a good example showing how you can print the 12 x 12" papers smaller and add to plain cardstock.
DT Member Julie Campbell just finished this pretty canvas bag to hold her knitting supplies using a paper and the artist palette illustration on CD # 2. You can get the details and enter Julie's Blog Giveaway to win this CD! Just leave a comment and she will announce a winner Jan 1/12.
DT Member Jan Hennings also has a Blog Giveaway for CD # 2. you can enter. Look at this cute bird Jan created using paper and images from CD 2 with paper clips for legs.
You are going to love all the fabulous tips and creative ideas that artisan Carol Turner provides on her inspiring Blog The Polkadot Closet
Carol re-vamped this vintage suitcase by decoupaging papers from CD #1, Creating With Vintage Patterns and I like her trick to cover paper seams with ribbon she glued on, the way she used ink to distress and the rose she added. She also turned a plain little shelf into a charming home decor piece.
I spotted this beautiful card on Linda Langes Blog that she designed using our Love Mail Scraps and you can see a couple of her other cards. Linda also entered the Shabby Tea Room Color Challenge that we are sponsoring. You can enter samples using any supplies, you just need to use the suggested color palette and add a link to your blog or gallery. You have until Jan 1/12 and the winner will get a $25.00 gift certificate and a CD!
Wishing you joy & creativity
Sandy Redburn
Crafty Secrets
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I am a student interested in working on Memory Management, particularly the page replacement component of the linux kernel.
What are the different guides that can help me to begin understanding the kernel source?
I have tried to read the book Understanding the Linux Virtual Memory Manager by Mel Gorman and Understanding the Linux Kernel by Cesati and Bovet, but they do not explain the flow of control through the code. They only end up explaining various data structures used and the work various functions perform. This makes the code more confusing.
My project deals with tweaking the page replacement algorithm in a mainstream kernel and analyse its performance for a set of workloads. Is there a flavor of the linux kernel that would be easier to understand (if not the linux-2.6.xx kernel)?


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U.S. Junior & U.S. Senior Opens Headline Houston Chess Festival |
By Franc Guadalupe | |
July 7, 2011 | |
Among the participants in the U.S. Senior is GM Sergey Kudrin (pictured to the left, USCF Rating 2614). Local top junior player FM Warren Harper (pictured below, USCF Rating 2412) who returned recently from the U.S. Junior Closed has decided to play in the U.S. Junior Open and enters as top seed. The U.S. Junior Open has four sections: U21, U15, U11, and U8 (age as of 1/1/2011). The U21 will have cash prizes and plaques, and the winner gets an automatic spot in the 2012 U.S. Junior Championship, if still eligible by age. The other three sections have trophy prizes. All sections have Place and Class (age and rating) prizes and all participants receive commemorative medals. In addition to the individual awards, the event will have team prizes and players are eligible to enter school or club teams! Top four scores, minimum of three, count towards team scores in each section. More information and on-line registration is available at active.com. The U.S. Senior Open has 6-Day and 3-Day Schedules. It has a guaranteed prize fund of $5,000 with the overall winner taking home $1,250! This prize fund reflects an increase of $1,000 over last year's. The top three finishers get Commemorative Clocks and six class (age) winners will receive plaques. The event is open to all players age 50 or over, and the top finisher born on or before January 1, 1951 is the official USCF entrant in the World Senior Chess Championship. The early entries have already exceeded the attendance for last year's event. More information and on-line registration for this National Championship is available at active.com. The Not-A-Senior-Not-A-Junior Open offers a Prize Fund of 70% of entries collected. This event has four USCF rated sections: Open (also FIDE rated), U2000, U1600/Unrated, and U1200. More details and on-line registration is available at cajunchess. The deadline for the early entry fee for both the U.S. Senior and U.S. Junior has been extended until July 11th. |
In less than two weeks, the Hilton Hobby Airport Hotel in Houston will be the site of a Chess Festival that includes two National events: The U.S. Junior Open (July 22-24), for players under the age of 21 as of 1/1/2011, and the U.S. Senior Open (July 18-23), for players age 50 and over as of 7/18/2011. For those who are not eligible for these two events, it will also have the Not-A-Senior-Not-A-Junior Open (July 22-24)! In addition to these three main events, there will be Blitz and Bughouse side events as well as a tournament for the Parents and Friends of the U.S. Junior participants.


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Truly a fan favorite, these little handcrafted leather Cross-Body Hipsters are perfect for the cowgirl on the go. You will love these small cowboy boot purses to tote around your essentials. It is handcrafted, one-of-a-kind created from reclaimed cowboy boots. These western Leather purses are adorned with genuine western conchos and feature magnetic closures. The removable strap enables you to attach them directly to your belt loops, waistband or larger travel bag. This one is accented with beautiful beading and finished with gorgeous western conchos.
Measurements are approximately 9.5" x6.5" with a removable 1/2" leather cross-body strap. Measurements may vary but they are pretty darn close.
Some purses have factory scuffs, scars, notations or irregularities which adds to it's character. Each small leather purse is truly crafted by hand without machinery. You are an individual so should your bag be! I don't make any two the same. If you need a little bigger bag, be sure to check out my Shoulder Bags I just made some beauties! LuAnn Hope writes..."The design, quality and workmanship is excellent. I love the style (crossbody) and colors are amazing. Reasonable price for the quality and style of the bag. One of a kind bag. I LOVE IT."
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One of two men who were imprisoned for more than 13 years for the fatal shooting of a bouncer outside a nightclub in 1990 was acquitted Thursday after being tried a second time for the killing.
David Lemus, 38, was found not guilty in Manhattan state Supreme Court of second-degree murder and second-degree attempted murder in the Nov. 23, 1990, killing of bouncer Marcus Peterson outside the Palladium nightclub. In August, his story was the subject of an msnbc.com investigation and a "Dateline NBC" documentary.
Peterson was shot after he and another bouncer scuffled with a patron who refused to go through a security check. Prosecutors said the patron returned with at least one other man and opened fire.
Lemus and Olmedo Hidalgo, 41, were convicted of the shooting in 1992. Both went to prison for more than 13 years, but a judge threw out the convictions in 2005 after new evidence surfaced.
Prosecutors, who never presented evidence that the two men even knew each other, dropped the charges against Hidalgo, who was subsequently deported to the Dominican Republic for an unrelated gun charge. But they decided to retry Lemus.
The new evidence included a federal witness's statement in 2000 that the real gunman was Thomas "Spanky" Morales and a 2002 New York Police Department report that named Morales as the shooter.
During the second trial, Morales testified in a sealed courtroom that he and another acquaintance, not Lemus and Hidalgo, did the shooting. Morales has not been prosecuted in the case.
Hidalgo filed a $50 million lawsuit against the city in Manhattan's U.S. District Court in November 2006, accusing the district attorney's office of false arrest, malicious prosecution and false imprisonment.
Manhattan prosecutors had no comment on the jury's Lemus verdict or on Hidalgo's lawsuit.
A Dateline documentary on this case will air Thursday, Dec. 13 at 10 p.m. ET on MSNBC.


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I have a PostGIS dataset with just over 2 million rows. Each row has a PostGIS geometry point value and several attributes.
I'd like to do some analysis on certain subsets of the data, but I can't figure this out. Is there a way of querying data once you have it in GRASS GIS? Alternately, is it possible to leave the attribute data back in Postgres, and then do queries or filters based on this data?
For example, suppose that my 2+ million rows had a boolean column X. How would I run GRASS analysis on the entire dataset, then immediately do the same analysis on only the data where this column is set to false?


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Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth says tough new penalties for distracted driving are based on research that shows the high risk of talking or texting while driving.
Farnworth was responding to a Vancouver lawyer's claim that distracted driving penalties are too high, after his review of coroner reports found that only 14 people in B.C. were determined to have died while using electronic devices behind the wheel between 2008 and 2016.
Farnworth noted that the problem goes far beyond deaths. Distracted driving is one of the main reasons given to explain the sudden jump in vehicle accident and injury claims that started in 2015 and has pushed up costs at the Insurance Corporation of B.C.
"Research tells us that you're 23 times more likely to crash if you're texting at the wheel and three or four times more likely to crash if you're on the phone," Farnworth said, citing a report from a U.S. university. "And police-reported Traffic Accident System data tell us that, over the last several years, distraction and inattention have injured 175 people – a dozen of them seriously – on average each week in B.C."
Vancouver lawyer Paul Doroshenko released a freedom of information request this week showing deaths confirmed by coroners.
"What we see is people who are punished with lengthy driving prohibitions as a result of picking up their cellphones at a set of traffic lights," Doroshenko said.
RELATED: B.C. hikes distracted driving penalties
The public safety ministry reports that between June 2016 and June 2017, police in B.C. issued 44,000 distracted driving tickets, a reduction of 13 per cent from the previous year. The NDP government announced new measures in November that add up to a $2,000 penalty for getting two distracted driving tickets within three years.
"For these reasons, we're taking action to make some of the toughest distracted driving penalties in Canada even tougher," Farnworth said.


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Do you want to convert more leads into sales? If so, you want to attend this dynamic webinar in which expert entrepreneurs, authors and coaches Kevin McGee and Marc Parham demystify sales funnels and how they work.
Kevin and Marc will help you understand more than just the buzzwords around sales funnels and how they can help you monetize your business and your brand. This webinar will enable you to gain an understanding of the traditional sales funnel and new to the market virtual sales funnels.
Participants will learn:
- Practical benefits and applications of sales funnels for product and service based businesses
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Download the webinar transcript.


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New polls showing President Obama enlarging his lead over challenger Mitt Romney have brought some Republicans to the point of panic, but logic and history should reassure them that the race will inevitably tilt in their direction.
These expectations matter, since Democrats seem to understand that their most significant advantage stems from the increasingly common conviction that Romney can't win. Barack Obama may enjoy only a tenuous lead in the ongoing struggle for public opinion, but he's decisively beating his opponent in the confidence game.
For four months, ever since Mitt Romney became the all-but-certain GOP nominee, polling most often indicated a breathlessly close race, with slight advantages for one side and then the other. But the same surveys show big majorities—sometimes approaching 2–1—expecting an Obama victory. While half or more of all registered voters express their disapproval of the president's job performance, and decisive majorities believe the nation is headed in the wrong direction, a significant proportion of even those who judge him a failure still think he'll succeed in getting rehired for the nation's top job.
At the political futures site InTrade, which allows people to invest their money in predicting electoral outcomes, Obama has spent all year as the heavy and consistent favorite; a hundred days before the election he led Romney by a margin of 57–40.
In politics every candidate wants to build a sense of inevitability, inspiring his admirers and discouraging his detractors. Endlessly repeated predictions of decisive triumph can become a self-fulfilling prophecy and a survival strategy for a struggling president. The Obama campaign has launched a determined effort to portray the president as unbeatable and to characterize Mitt Romney as a hapless loser, in much the same way that Bill Clinton managed to stigmatize his challenger Bob Dole as a "dead man walking" in 1996.
But Clinton also could demand a vote of confidence on his own constructive leadership by pointing to a roaring economy, a rapidly declining deficit, and an increasingly peaceful and democratic world. On the eve of their fateful decision in 2012, few Americans see such positive strides or optimistic developments, either at home or abroad.
In that context, it makes sense that Obama supporters would prefer to spend their energy convincing the public that their man will win rather than debating the substantive issue of whether he deserves to win.
If most people believe that our nation's headed in the wrong direction, then why wouldn't they choose to switch drivers? With nearly everyone demanding dramatic change in Washington, it hardly makes sense to keep the same guy in charge.
If Obama says he's not to blame for the state of the country, then he's conceded weakness and impotence, and if he tries to echo the public desire for new directions, then he acknowledges that his controversial policies of the last four years never worked as intended.
No wonder the Democrats want to talk about political mechanics, citing the latest scraps of information suggesting the president's looking strong in Virginia or Ohio rather than facing the administration's disastrous deficits, painfully high unemployment, and stalled economic growth. Most campaigns try to use crucial issues to influence public opinion on the state of the race, but the Obama team hopes to use public perceptions of the state of the race to sway the nation on the issues. They argue that the administration's record on spending and job creation can't possibly be as bad as it looks, since the president somehow maintains his competitive position in the polls and sustains the impression that he's a prohibitive favorite for reelection.
The "Obama's unbeatable" advocates also rely on a crucial and common assumption that's based on appalling ignorance and willful distortion. If you ask a typical voter why he or she blithely assumes that the president will get the second term he seeks, the most common answer involves his status as the incumbent. According to this logic, the president will get reelected because sitting presidents almost always win. Conventional wisdom suggests that the American people feel a powerful instinct to follow Abraham Lincoln's advice to avoid "switching horses in midstream."
In fact, a consideration of past campaigns makes it clear that the conventional wisdom rests on intellectual laziness and flat-out blindness to the historical record.
Since the ratification of the Constitution, we've gone through 51 presidential elections with an incumbent eligible to run, and in 32 of those cases—some 63 percent—some other guy actually won the election. In other words, the history of the presidency gives no indication at all that the man in the White House counts as a near automatic winner.
Many of those incumbents who failed to capture an additional term chose not to run at all: two of them (James K. Polk and Rutherford B. Hayes) because they'd pledged to serve only a single term; four of them (John Tyler, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, and Woodrow Wilson) because their profound unpopularity at the end of their terms made another presidential campaign all but unthinkable; and nine of them because they chose to follow the informal tradition established by Washington and avoid seeking a third term.
Of the 34 who went to the voters and made an attempt to return to the White House, 19 succeeded and 15 failed—hardly a record of all-but-assured success. Nor is the mixed performance a relic of the distant past: of the last six candidates to run for the presidency as White House incumbents, three succeeded (Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush) while three failed (Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and George H. W. Bush).
Democrats should ask themselves whether President Obama bears a stronger resemblance to the three recent winners or the three recent losers. In terms of his economic situation, the unemployment rate is much higher, and the growth rate much lower than for any of the second-term winners in the last 40 years—and also far worse than for one of the second-term losers (the first President Bush). As far as temperament is considered, Barack Obama hardly comes across as a genial, sunny, easy-going people-pleaser like Reagan, Clinton, or even George W.—let alone recapturing the unshakable optimism of his hero, FDR. His dour personality may fit the national mood of the moment, but with his slashingly negative campaigning and inveterate blame-gaming, he hardly contributes to lifting the gloom. The tightly wound, suffering-servant aura that has clung to his presidency at least since the 2010 GOP landslide, links him far more closely to the electorally challenged trio of Ford, Carter, and Bush I than to the irresistible cheerfulness of the successfully reelected recent incumbents.
At the same time, serious consideration of the historical precedents established by all two-term presidents over the course of 220 years suggests an iron rule of special relevance to the current Obama campaign.
From the dawn of the republic, no president has ever won consecutive terms while drawing less support (in both the electoral college and the popular vote) in his second bid for election than he did in the first successful campaign. In other words, presidents who win reelection manage to earn more backers, not more opponents, during their first four years in the White House. If, on the other hand, their critics multiply and the pool of admirers shrinks in response to their record of leadership, the embattled president always loses. When some significant portion of the voters who backed a president the first time now feel disillusioned and join the opposition (or stay home), and if the incumbent can't replace these losses with comparable gains from people who rejected him four years before, it's an indication of a failed presidency.
Those who doubt the relevance of this rule to the present race should address a revealing question: what's more common in today's public discourse—people who say they voted for Barack Obama but now feel disappointed and betrayed, or voices declaring that they backed John McCain four years ago but now support the president because they're inspired by the magnificent job he's done?
Even Obama and his top advisers acknowledge the obvious fact that more Americans feel let down by his leadership than pleasantly surprised. Team Obama has often declared the election of 2012 will prove "even closer" than the contest of 2008, and history indicates that this amounts to a de facto recognition of likely defeat.
The second unbroken rule of two-term presidents shows that all reelected chief executives achieved far less success, and attracted far more trouble, in term two than in term one. This pattern applies even to our greatest and most luminous leaders of the past, very much including Washington, Jefferson, FDR, and Reagan. If this unvaried precedent holds true for Obama, then voters should discard any hope for some magical, mystical improvement in his leadership abilities or his record of achievement. History offers no encouragement whatever for those who daydream that an encore for the Obama era between 2013 and 2017 will produce more reassuring results than the painfully rocky path the nation has traveled since 2009. If you've been even slightly dissatisfied by his first four years, the pattern of past administrations suggests that an encore would prove inevitably worse. And most Americans feel more than slightly dissatisfied by federal performance since 2009.
Sooner or later the conversation will inevitably come back to the core question of whether the public wants a change of course or prefers to select more of the same.
The latest smears and distractions will begin to fade into irrelevance after the selection of the very substantive Paul Ryan as Romney's running mate, and certainly won't dominate the discussion after the conventions and the debates. As the leaves turn this autumn, the back-to-school chill in the air signifies a return to serious business—both for vacationing schoolchildren and grandstanding politicians.
And when the time comes that the public begins to reconnect the sorry state of the nation with the available choices in leadership, neither common sense nor historical precedent indicates that Barack Obama counts as a prohibitive favorite. Both past and present suggest that the future will make him a likely loser.


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Fried Coke (and other fried things inspired by Texas)
CNN is reporting that deep fried lattes, fried chili pie, fried banana pudding and fried guacamole are all highlights set to premier at this year's third annual Big Tex Choice Awards contest. The event, which "tests the fair grub ingenuity of State Fair concessionaires," is interesting not just because it's the first time I've seen the word concessionaires, but also because I had no clue people wanted their lattes deep fried. Of course, the really interesting thing is that all of these ingenious foods come with a bit of a complex: They're all trying to emerge from the shadow of 2006's show stopper, the fried coke. The darling of the deep fried dough world, the dish combines 1 part ingenuity with several parts coca cola syrup (included both in the batter, and in the sauce). In fact, the dish was so popular that it sold over 16,000 servings in its first two weeks—a pretty stunning figure according to vendors.
As for just how many calories come in the new New Coke, that figure's been estimated at a good 820+ calories... and yet no one seems to be working on the diet follow-up. In any case, as of now it sounds like fried coke is going to reign without any sort of Pepsi challenge, as the other colas seem happy to let their foe bask in the Texas limelight. Click here to read more at CNN.


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The default SharePoint behavior is to also search documents which have been deleted unless the content has been re-crawled or index is reset. I am using a KeywordQuery to search items with a particular managed property and I don't want the deleted items to show up in the result even if content has not been re-crawled or reset.
query.QueryText = string.Format("Barcode:\"{0}\"", "ABC123");
query.ResultTypes |= ResultType.RelevantResults;
The only way I am able to achieve it so far is to add the "Path" property and then checking if the resulting SPListItem is not null.
Is there any better way of doing this?


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Heavyweight knockout artist Matt Mitrione looks to get back on track against Sunderland, England's submission specialist Phil De Fries on April 6th at UFC on FUEL TV in Stockholm, Sweden. As he prepares for this weekend, Mitrione looks back on one of his favorite UFC fights, which featured his friend and mentor riding off into retirement triumphantly with a main event win and two bonus checks: Chris Lytle vs. Dan Hardy at UFC Live on August 14th, 2011.
One of my favorite fights I've ever seen is the Chris Lytle/Dan Hardy fight. It was Chris' last fight and they pretty much had an agreement that they weren't going to go to the ground. They were just going to stand up and let them fly. Click here to watch the fight
It was really emotional and nerve-wracking. They were both trading off really well. It was an exciting fight in the stand-up. I was in the crowd and after every round, I would go and talk to Chris' wife and kids like, "Chris won that round. That was a good round," just letting them know that everything is good.
That fight was damn near perfect. They're throwing leather, they're throwing shins, whatever else. That really could be a trademark fight for the UFC. Everyone is an expert in their craft. You have to be well-rounded in
everything. Dan's a great striker, his wrestling is getting better, and
his submission defense is getting better, but it's not up to snuff with
Dan shoots for a takedown, it gets stuffed, he goes for another takedown, and he gets submitted out of it. There's a good transition where I believe Chris had a bottom guillotine and swept and went on top with a guillotine, where Chris is belly-down, and that's his signature. It was exciting. Dan left himself open in this one situation and Chris capitalized on it. A submission finish to end Chris' historic career -- it was incredible to watch him go out like that.
Chris has an exceptional ground game. For them to have that gentleman's
agreement - not to go to the ground and to stand up and bang - and then for Dan to shoot on him because he
didn't want to stand with him anymore? And for Chris to submit him with
his signature submission? It couldn't be any better. He was so happy
with it.
Chris is my mentor, so it was really cool to watch that. When Chris won it was awesome. The crowd was ecstatic. It's like hitting a grand slam in a world series and retiring after it. A home run would be only be the one bonus -- like how John Elway retired in his last game. It was one of the best retirements of all time in sports, a storybook ending.
Chris is really humble, so he never really talks about it, But we
have a gym back home in Indianapolis and we have that image of Herb Dean
raising Chris' hand after that fight in a mural up on a wall. So it's
in that mural that he sees every time he goes to the gym and we all see
it. It's something that we pay tribute to Chris with. Chris has
really big shoes to fill. He's had 80 some odd fights in MMA and
boxing, never been knocked out or submitted.
I met Chris the first day I started training in December 2008. As a human being he's so forthcoming with information and time, whether it is time with his kids or time checking up on me when I'm training away from home now, He's not just a fight mentor, he's just a great friend. My personal life, my kids, my relationship with my parents - we talk about everything. We talk about things like my post-fight career and what my transition is going to be like. We talk about everything. Chris has been a major part of my life.
UFC Performance Institute
Dana White On The Opening Of UFC PI Mexico


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June 22, 2012
Calling the Endangered Species Act abused by activists and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS), Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples, in testimony to the United States House of Representatives Committee on Natural Resources this week, warned that such abuse threatens the economy and the rights of rural land holders.
The committee is holding an oversight hearing, titled "Taxpayer-Funded Litigation: Benefitting Lawyers and Harming Species, Jobs and Schools," which is examining how litigious groups use the Endangered Species Act and other federal laws to hinder species recovery, jobs and education.
"It is clear the ESA has been used to accomplish the goals of radicals and those seeking to expand the reach of government," Staples communicated to the Committee in a prepared statement of testimony. "Congress needs to step in to end this game of 'endangered chicken' once and for all. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is recklessly driving the taxpayers' truck on a collision course with our economy, food producers, true species steward landowners and taxpayers. Let's hope Congress takes the keys away before more damage is done."
Staples has long been critical of what he terms the over use and abuse of the act and says Congressional action is the only way to stop what he calls the radical use of legislation which can be a detriment of the species the law was intended to protect.
"I implore Congress to take action to provide true relief to the people of Texas and the United States. The perversion of the Endangered Species Act continues to create victims and take hostages," Staples said in his testimony.
The Commissioner testified that Congress needs to act now to provide relief to landowners, states and businesses that are being "deprived of property and the opportunity to work and create jobs. He accused activists of attempting to grab land and water "upon which Americans depend.
"Approximately 84 percent of the land in Texas is in privately-owned farms, ranches and forests. Our landowners are responsible for managing the natural resources that sustain our state's population of 26 million; feed and clothe the world; provide a healthy environment; and create the jobs that power our economy. We believe in sound decision making, private property owners' rights and the fact that government is not the answer to every problem. The execution of the ESA conflicts with these principles and has been a source of concern for Texans for decades," Staples' written testimony reads.
Suffocating opportunity
Staples told the Committee that rather than supporting proven conservation efforts, the Endangered Species Act has been used to suffocate opportunities that promote species propagation through non-governmental, non-regulatory methods.
"Texas landowners understand the value of natural resource preservation. Based on a conservative estimate, billions of dollars have been invested to implement proven technologies that preserve our natural resources by, among other things, controlling erosion, improving water quality and eradicating invasive species." Staples said. "A sad irony of the implementation of the Endangered Species Act is that it promotes regulation over incentives, often to the detriment of the species it proposes to protect. Rather than supporting proven conservation efforts, the ESA has been used to suffocate opportunities that promote species propagation through non-governmental, non-regulatory methods."
The Commissioner testified that the ESA "has been used to accomplish the goals of radicals and those seeking to expand the reach of government." Interestingly, he noted, a more recent shift in implementation is the focus on casting regulation as voluntary. He said traditionally Texas farmers, ranchers and landowners have appreciated the concept of voluntary conservation and often participated in those efforts.
"With a history that includes decimation of agriculture to protect the spotted owl and the delta smelt, the need for Congress to stop the abuse of the ESA could never be more pressing. With approximately 20 new species listings on USFWS' agenda, we must conclude that future designations could result in large swaths of Texas being declared habitat for endangered or threatened animals, resulting in one of the largest land and water grabs in modern times," Staples concluded.
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Digging up John Williams
Butcher's Crossing by John Williams. New York Review of Books, 1960 reissued 2007. 274 pages.
For those of us who truly love books, our greatest pleasures are often derived from discovering the "neglected classics" — remarkable books that somehow manage to pass under our personal radar. In the great deluge of novels that have flooded this country for the past 50 years, it is not surprising to discover that many distinguished works were published with little or no fanfare — they fade quietly, unnoticed by either the critics or the media.
Well, it is gratifying to learn that somebody noticed John Williams and lifted his three novels (Butcher's Crossing, Stoner and Augustus) from obscurity. (The New York Review of Books is devoted to finding "lost or missed" classics). Although the Denver-based author of Butcher's Crossing died in 1994, his works are being re-evaluated (and critically acclaimed). Almost 50 years after their publication, his works continue to attract attention. Current critics compare Butcher's Crossing to Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian and graduate students are finding the novels of John Williams on their required reading lists.
Butcher's Crossing is a western. The setting is the 1870s when Will Andrews arrives in the raw and primitive town of Butcher's Crossing, Kansas. A Harvard graduate and a fervent admirer of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Andrews is on a spiritual quest. He wants to encounter Nature in its most brutal aspect ("bloody in tooth and claw") so that he can merge, or "become One" with it.
Essentially, this is the clichéd beginning of a hundred potboilers: the eastern "tenderfoot" confronts a daunting "rites of passage," but his innate courage and moral principles enables him to survive. He emerges hardened and confident, ready to take his place among the stalwart natives of the rugged west.
However, Will Andrews is destined to encounter a dark and brutal world that bears no resemblance to Emerson's precepts. His six-month ordeal as a member of a buffalo hunting party not only change his perceptions of the natural world; it also affords him with the dubious opportunity to experience a dark and mindless violence that has much in common with Joseph Conrad's descent into the heart of darkness.
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When Andrews arrives in Butcher's Crossing, he makes the belated discovery that the great buffalo hunts are virtually over. (The fashion craze in the East for buffalo coats has diminished and customers are complaining about the "smell that they can't get rid of.") The surrounding prairie is littered with thousands of bone piles that the local farmers are slowly converting to fertilizer. However, by chance, he meets Miller, a buffalo hunter who tells him of a remote valley in Colorado where an enormous herd grazes peacefully. Using his inheritance, Andrews offers to finance a hunting expedition, on the condition that he is included in the party.
Thus begins a journey into an immense wilderness; yet it is a transitory world that is forever altered by the passage of these men who seem to have a desire to destroy everything they see. In addition to Miller and Andrews, the hunting party includes Charlie Hoge, a one-handed alcoholic with a penchant for quoting scripture, and Fred Schneider, an angry, taciturn man who glares at world around him with contempt. Hoge is a gifted cook and driver; Schneider is a skinner. Miller promises that they will return with several thousand hides — enough to make them all wealthy.
The journey is memorable. The author's ability to describe natural phenomena, a terrifying snowstorm, thirst, drought and the immensity of the natural world is remarkable. However, I feel that John Williams' real purpose is to demolish the "myth of the West." The author does not describe a primitive world where men are ennobled by travail and hazardous encounters. Instead, he takes his tenderfoot to the brink of an abyss where he glimpses the mindless and destructive violence in his own heart.


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The Coming Boom
Our collective record of predicting what the economy will do next is dreadful. Twelve years ago, few worried about terrorism, many worried about Y2K, and the thought of zero percent interest rates was preposterous. Not a single person knows what the future holds, and so what I'm about to write isn't so much a prediction as an observation of potential.
After five years of collapse and stagnation, we could be on the cusp of a new economic boom. I'm not expecting anything like the mid-1980s or late 1990s, mind you. But the odds that the next five years will be markedly better than the last five years are good -- and growing better by the day.
The new boom will be driven by three things: A rebound in housing construction, the rise in domestic energy-production, and the end of consumer debt deleveraging.
Start with housing. From 2002 to 2007, a net average of 1.3 million American households were created every year. During that time, almost 2 million new homes were built annually. Today, it's the other way around. In the last year, 1.1 million new households were formed, but just 700,000 new homes were built.
Just as the overbuilding of homes during the housing bubble was unsustainable, today's level of home construction cannot last -- it's just far too low to meet demand. Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies estimates that household formation will average 1.5 million from 2010 to 2020. Factor in scrappage, and new-home construction needs to more than double from current levels to meet those projections.
What happens then? The Center for Housing Policy estimates that every new home generates 2.1 new jobs -- both directly, from construction workers and real-estate agents, and indirectly, as those workers spend more money. The National Association of Home Builders puts it at 3.05 jobs per new home. Whatever the true figure is, it adds up fast when we're talking about the need to build a million homes per year above current levels.
Next is energy. Domestic oil-production declined nearly every year from 1986 to 2008, falling by 41%. It has since risen consistently for the first time in three decades, now up more than 30% in the last four years. The U.S. produced more oil in July than in any other month since 1998. And growth in America's energy output since 2008 has surpassed that of any other country in the world, according to energy analyst Daniel Yergin.
The boom in natural gas production is even more impressive. Thanks to new fracking technologies, and a push to find new supplies after the 2008 energy shock, domestic natural gas production hit an all-time high in January, 35% above where it was five years before. Companies like Chesapeake have discovered so much natural gas in the last few years that they are actually struggling as prices collapse to decade lows.
If this trend continues, which seems likely, it could be a transformational boost to the economy. The rise in domestic energy production has already shaved $175 billion off our annual import bill compared with five years ago, according to Yergin. Beyond the financial savings, the geopolitical dividends this yields are huge. Then there are jobs. Loews CEO James Tisch says that every billion cubic feet per day of natural-gas production generates between 7,000 and 10,000 new jobs. Yergin's firm, IHS, estimates 1.3 million energy-related jobs will be created in the next seven years.
Finally, households have been buried in unaffordable debt for the last five years. But they've been shedding the burden, both by defaulting on debt, and paying it down -- a so-called "deleveraging." Their progress has been nothing short of remarkable: As a percentage of disposable income, household debt payments are now at the lowest level since 1993.
A McKinsey & Co. report from January estimated households deleveraging could be complete by the middle of next year. It may already be over. Total household debt has stopped declining, and is now roughly flat year over year.
When the deleveraging ends, households will have more flexibility to buy a new car, take a vacation, or repair a roof -- things they've probably been putting off for years. Most importantly, they'll be able to do it in a safe, sustainable way that doesn't involve piling on debt beyond their ability to repay. Household deleveraging has likely been the single biggest weight on the economy in recent years. The tailwind that comes from its completion shouldn't be underestimated.
Anything can happen going forward -- recessions, banking collapses, wars, you name it. But we are in a nearly opposite position compared with five years ago. Back then, the economic reality was much bleaker than perception. Today, I have a feeling it's the other way around.
Check back every Tuesday and Friday for Morgan Housel's columns on finance and economics.
The article The Coming Boom originally appeared on Fool.com.
Fool contributor Morgan Housel has no positions in the stocks mentioned above. The Motley Fool has the following options: long JAN 2013 $16.00 calls on Chesapeake Energy, short JAN 2014 $15.00 puts on Chesapeake Energy, long JAN 2014 $20.00 calls on Chesapeake Energy, and long JAN 2014 $30.00 calls on Chesapeake Energy. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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